More than 30 tonnes of poison has been successfully dropped on New Zealand's remote Antipodes Islands as the Department of Conversation (DOC) works to eradicate a mouse plague.
The aerial baiting programme was on a knife-edge with a crew of 13, including dedicated helicopter pilots, forced to sit and wait for a break in traditionally terrible sub-Antarctic weather.
Helicopter pilots have since been able to reach 100 percent of 2045 hectare island, dropping around 32 tonnes of anticoagulant brodifacoum poison. It's targeted at a population of around 200,000 mice which threaten native species on the islands.
The $3.9 million dollar project, which was partially funded in a public fundraiser, will now go into a second phase with DOC waiting for the poison to take its toll.
They must wait around two weeks before making a second application of bait, which will require a two- to four-day window of good weather, to be sure the eradication is complete.
One pregnant mouse could render the entire project a failure.
Newshub.